Mass Revelations
by Fulcano
Summary: After dying and somehow being reborn a young James Racer finds himself in the middle of the Mass Effect universe. He must now figure out how to survive, and find answers to why he is here.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my new idea for a Mass Effect fic, to those reading my other story I haven't abandoned the fic I just needed to step away from it for a bit since I feel a bit stuck on it. I came up with the idea after reading another Mass effect fic by Soleneus. I also want to say that I have no experience with engineering so most of the things I speak about in the story are things I learned about from the wiki and my own thoughts on how it works. My brother also helped me out by editing the fic.**

**Hope you enjoy.**

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**Prologue Part One**

**January 1st 2015 New York City **

You know Sometimes I wonder if I should have just stayed home today. My name is James Racer, my name is a bit weird but I love it nonetheless. I'm lying here on the asphalt bleeding out profusely after being hit by a drunk driver. As I lay here I think about how I ended up in this situation. I graduated a year early from M.I.T and so I decided to come home before I would start applying for jobs. That plan had utterly failed. My friends, whom I haven't seen in ages wanted to celebrate on New Years. I really regret agreeing to that now. My sight slowly begin to fade as my friend Mark continued to yell at the driver who ran me over. Abby on the other hand tried to make sure I was okay.I could feel that she had wrapped her scarf around my leg to stop the bleeding. I could hear Rick calling the ambulance, however I could tell it was already too late I felt my body get colder as my vision slowly get darker until everything went dark.

* * *

**October 20th 2154**

**Mindoir**

As I came to, I could hear my heart pounding like a drum, by some miracle I was alive, however everything was dark- I could move but, I felt constrained- I could barely move my limbs. On top of that I seemed to be surrounded by a strange liquid. Let's ignore that for now and try to figure out why the hell I'm still alive, and if I'm guessing correctly I'm somehow a baby.

Before I could contemplate further- I began to move. After hours of resisted movement I began to see light. A hand stretched out towards me, and began to pick me up out of the gooey substance. A few minutes later I'm passed to the woman who had given birth to me who looked exactly like my mother just much younger. I'm really hoping that, me dying didn't just restart my life there are a few things I don't want to go through again. As I thought this I tried to speak to the woman only for it to come out as gibberish. Great, now I'm going to relearn how to speak, and I feel a bit tired now too. Screw it I'm just going to sleep.

* * *

**Fourteen Years Later **

**October 20th 2168 Mindoir **

It's been fourteen years since that day, being a baby sucked. Thank God that's over. Anyway, it didn't take me very long to discover that I wasn't reliving my own life, instead I was living in the Mass Effect Universe. I still remember my short celebration when I realized I was literally living in my favorite video game. Only to quickly realize I was in a universe with giant robot squids bent on destroying civilization. I still remember freaking out for at least a good hour or so before I began to rationalize my thought to calm myself down. I knew I had to make a decision on what I had to do while I was here. One option was to live a normal life, killed, then turned into a techno zombie. (_Not a fun way to end up of course_.) The other option was to try and make a difference in whatever way possible. Seeing as how I wasn't a biotic I decided to work with the technology instead. Studying and experimenting with the weapons, omni-tools, dismantling my father's skycar to see how it worked then put it back together before he even noticed. Due to my studies I was able to develop different kinds of technology like a jetpack. Using a much smaller propulsion drive powered by a mass effect field, I was able to make the jetpack more efficient however, -there are still plenty of bugs.

My two favorite projects that I've been working on for the last six years are the Atlas suit and and Lara. The Atlas is a symbiotic suit I began to develop using the idea of the Crysis suit-made to adapt to any situation. Despite my hard work, I've run into a few problems. Nevertheless I should have it ready in two years. Then there is Lara, (not sure where I came up with the name but.) She is an AI I'm creating to work in collaboration with the suit in order to direct most, if not all of the suits functions without my direct input. The major problem with that is developing a blue box which can give her a personality, rather than being an advance VI.

Instead of working, I was currently being dragged through Mindoir by Jane Shepard. Her reason for dragging me you ask? Her explanation is "I shouldn't be working on my birthday." However, she doesn't know that there are diabolical machines ready to enslave, kill, or turn us into zombies coming in less than two decades.

To my misfortune, she seemed to be dragging me towards the forest; a varren infested forest. They somehow got on the planet two years ago. Every time we think we've killed them all more appear like damn cockroaches.

"Hey Jane… where the hell are you dragging me anyway." I asked as she continued dragging me praying that we weren't going into the forest. Killing Varren on my birthday does not sound like fun.

"Hmm, oh to the forest of course. I'm taking you to that ship that crashed here a few days ago. I'm sure you're gonna want to take it apart for parts and to see how it works, so I decided to take you there as a birthday present. I'm a great friend right." Jane said to me with smile on her face. I quickly looked away from her I already knew what she was going to do and if I continued to look at that beautiful smile of hers I'd cave and agree to anything she says.

"Sure you are, you just want me to make something for you again. What is it this time... more explosives right?" She quickly looked away from me after I mentioned that. "I'm sure your parents are disappointed that they raised a pyro..." I would have continued but Jane decided to shut my mouth by throwing me to the ground. As I tried to get up she had grabbed me by the back of my shirt and continued dragging me literally this time.

"Don't talk like you don't like it too I saw that smile on your face the last time you made a bomb and blew it up outside the colony. You were grinning like a kid who just got the toy he wanted for Christmas." I smirked realizing that it was true. The longer I hung out with Jane the more I began to like explosions. I really hope I don't end up becoming a pyromaniac like her.

"Whatever, so how far is the crash site anyway?" I ask Jane trying to change the topic from my budding pyromania. She gave me a smile in victory before speaking.

"Not that far we're almost there, no wait we're here now." Jane tells me as she finally lets me walk on my own two feet. I turn around to see what looks like an alliance corvette though it's heavily modified to the point where I wondered how the owner could even get it to fly. My guess it was likely stolen or sold on the black market to pirates and they modified it thinking it would still run properly.

"So what would you have done if I came down here after the ship crashed?" I asked her as I approached the ship, intent on seeing what I could work with. She quickly responded. "You may like working on things like this but you and I both know you would hardly ever leave your lab if it wasn't for me. I bet you would stay there for the rest of your life." As she said this Jane began to chuckle likely imagining me doing nothing but working in the lab for the rest of my life. I simply ignored her and opened the door to the ship, it was a Rhone class corvette. They typically have one mass accelerator turret, two auto turrets, and a javelin disruptor torpedo launcher.

However, whoever owned the ship had tried to add more torpedos to the ship as well as a GARDIAN laser array. If they had added the array only they would only need to divert a bit of power to prevent it from overheating. I'm pretty sure the ship would of run just fine but, instead the ship likely overheated in combat and killed the occupants inside.

The moment I opened up the ship I could smell burnt flesh and decaying bodies, it made me wonder why no one else had come here to check if these guys were alive. But, I ignored that and ripped off a bit of my sleeves in order to make a face mask and passed it to Jane who nodded in thanks. I ripped a bit more in order to make one for myself.

As I moved through the corvette I could see the differences between this smaller ship and the Normandy, the star map was much smaller, and from what I could see there was only one room with a bunk everything else was just alliance sleeper pods or what I like to call space coffins. I moved towards the cockpit to get a copy of the programs used for the GARDIAN laser array I felt if I understood it I could develop something that could work at long range to deal with the kinetic barriers on the reapers, or maybe infantry laser rifles.

I began drooling a bit at the thought before I started looking around for Jane, just noticing she had disappeared sometime as I started downloading the ships programs. I knew she wouldn't mess with anything she didn't know about so I didn't have much to worry about, As I walked outside the ship to gather some of the nodes for the array I then heard an explosion go off inside the ship.

I threw down the nodes and ran inside the ship and began calling anyone from the colony just incase Jane was hurt in anyway. I had noticed she wasn't on the main level so I ran towards the eezo core.

I had found her unconscious from the eezo core overloading then giving out a small explosion. I began dragging her out of the core before there was another explosion. As I got outside I saw our parents with the colonies doctor. I passed her off to him before running off to the cockpit and routing some of the systems on to the emergency core just in case the ship itself decided to explode while we were nearby.

I ran back outside to find that the doctor had likely taken Jane back to his office, the only ones left were my parents who were waiting outside for me. My father Carl, a tall intimidating man standing at six feet and three inches, and still in good shape from his time in the alliance who stood next to my mother who was much shorter standing at five feet two inches was much shorter but no less intimidating considering the fact that she was also ex alliance. I gulped and hoped I wouldn't be getting my ass kicked today. Either way though it was a crappy birthday, even with the info from the ship.

* * *

So it turned out my parents decided to let me off, which was good and all but the only thing that I really cared about was how Jane was. And I was happy to say she was alright… mostly anyway. Turned out the explosion exposed her to element zero, and instead of killing her thank God it didn't it instead made gave her biotics. From what the doctor can tell the exposure made it so she could easily control her biotics even without an amp. Not to mention the amount of power she was giving off was closer to an Asari near in the matron stage. I would know the moment I said something that pissed her off she hit me halfway across the colony.

While that hurt like hell I could understand why some people could find that fun, as long as the person doing it is not trying to kill you anyway. Aside from that I was happy she was alive.

* * *

**Two Years Later**

**July 4th 2170 Mindoir**

Two years after the accident in that Pirate ship, both Jane's parents and mine were able to keep a lid on her biotic abilities. It was understandable considering the fact that that while the BAaT **(Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training) **was closed down due to Alenko killing the instructor so called training that occurred in the program were able to reach the general public. I knew that it wouldn't reach the public normally so I had hacked into the alliance files and released the information. It didn't do much good but, it helped make the decision easier, and I don't regret it. But let's forget about that right now I need to figure out why Jane is messing with my prototype blaster.

"Put that down Jane just because it looks like a toy doesn't mean it can't kill you." I said to her in a monotone voice before hearing a large Pew sound followed by the sound of the blaster short circuiting and the Jane cursing as the blaster shocked her.

"I did tell you to put it down." I told her again before ducking as she threw the remains of the blaster at me.

She began grumbling to herself for a little I could see that she was almost imagining choking me I snickered a bit as she did so and watched as she finally calmed herself down. "Shut up anyway I got a question." Jane said before looking at the lancer assault rifle I modified with an increased vent system allowing it to fire longer.

"Yeah what is it." I answered as I moved back to my Atlas suit which I had just finished the night before. All that was need now was for me to put it on and the suit would take nine hours to adapt to my body to find the best settings to run.

"Why don't you ever try and sell these things? I mean your innovative ways in dealing with the weapons overheating issue and that coolant you made recently for ships could net you millions of credits. So why don't you ever do anything with them." Jane asked as she began taking apart the lancer before putting it back together and placing it back on the rack.

"I do plan on selling these slowly, I mean I can't just throw them out there if I do the plans could end up in the hands of terrorist. I would rather see it in the hands of alliance soldiers or in council hands, so while I do want to distribute them I need to do so in a way that prevents terrorist or criminals from getting their hands on them and using them to kill innocent people. Besides while I am comfortable with the guns since we were able to test them I'm not too sure on the coolant yet it's not like I own a ship to test it on." I told Jane as I placed my hands on the suit watching it turn into a silvery liquid covering my body. As the suit began to solidify on my body, I can feel it interacting with my nervous system, screening it like an x-ray , gleaning for details of my physique. Once its crystallization process finished, I looked at my hands and lifted my legs. The slivers of blue light peaked out in every fold of the suit and the rather cold black visage encapsulated the remaining portions of my body. I then entered a command into my omni-tool the suit faded back almost dissolving into my skin. I turned back to Jane who had merely raised an eyebrow at the strange sight. I looked at her almost confused as to why she didn't freak out like the first time I had tested the suit out.

"Lemme guess you're wondering why I didn't freak out like the last time this happened." I nod slowly. "Well this time that suit wasn't trying to kill you like the last time when it started choking you instead of doing whatever it just did. Besides I've been here so many times I've grown used to the insanity that happens when you work." She finishes with a chuckle. I would have retorted but I was stopped by the sound of an explosion going off nearby. Jane and I looked at each other before she grabbed two guns one that I made for her personal use, and my own. Both guns I had made using the designs from Destiny. I had made both guns using my own understanding of thermal clips. Hawkmoon unlike most pistols shaved off a much larger piece off the ammo block nearly triple the size of conventional guns. The added mass ripped through kinetic barriers with ease. I had given Jane, Hawkmoon I would have taken it myself but she was able to flash that smile of hers before fluttering her eyes followed by pouting then I caved.

Instead I had made 'The Last Word' though I made the single action that it worked with in the game optional since I couldn't just slammed down the hammer every time I wanted to shoot. Unlike Hawkmoon, 'The last word' only shaved off double the size of conventional guns, however the bullets travelled at a much higher speed thus able to do as much damage as Hawkmoon only in a different way

When we got outside my house we were greeted by a horrific sight. Most of the colony was on fire I could see Batarian troops grabbing people left and right and slapping slave collars on their necks. I had noticed most of the men had been killed; though many were still fighting back including my father Carl and Jane's father John. I immediately moved in to help switching the gun back to single action and firing off as many shots at the slavers. My first two shots made the heads of two of them explode ripping through their kinetic barriers before Jane joined in likely after getting over the shock of the sight of her home burning. We were able to put down quite a few before both our fathers grabbed us and pulled us behind cover.

"Look James I know you want to help but-" My father started but I immediately interrupted him.

"I can help there is no way I'm going to let these bastards destroy our home." I yelled, slightly angry at myself since I knew that this would happen.

"I know, I know that but if you fight you'll likely die I can already see the Batarians ships are preparing for a bombing run. If they can't capture everyone they'll simply make sure everyone here is dead. So I need you to get out of here find your mother, I forced her out the colony with John's wife after the initial attack. Now go make sure you and Jane watch out for each other alright."

I looked my father as if he was insane, even though I could clearly remember my father from my original universe he was an ass in simple terms, only showing up when he realized that I would be successful and then disappearing again during those times when I went through rough patches in my life. While both men shared the same name they were completely different, and I considered them man in front of me to be my father compared to that bastard. So I wanted to yell and scream that I would stay and fight with him but that look in his eye told me I had to go, I yielded before nodding to him. He gave me a smile before pushing me towards Jane who had tears in her eyes, however she had a hardened look to them as well accepting what was about to happen but was in no way happy about it. I looked to Jane's father who gave me a terse nod before turning back to the battle. As they did so, Jane and I began running towards the forest passing by the fields that were once filled with crops now torched beyond recognition. I could still hear the sounds of women and children screaming as they were likely captured by Batarians.

I did my best to ignore it block it from my head, knowing that the people getting dragged away were friends, neighbors, people I knew. I felt so useless running from the battle even though I could do so much.

Moments later we made it to the entrance to the same forest which I thought we were going into two years ago, and none too soon as the colony was soon reduced to rubble by the bomb dropping down onto it reducing it to rubble and flames. I could see Jane wanting to run back but hesitating so I grabbed her and ran as fast as we could into the forest. Doing my best not to look back at the destruction that was once my home.

* * *

About a half an hour later we decided to take a small break for some water by a stream. While we weren't very tired physically we did need a break to cope with everything that just happened.

Jane sat next to resting her head into my shoulder as she watches me look over the data in my omni tool. I was making sure I had the data for everything I made in the lab as well as going over combat programs to make sure they were ready just in case any Batarians found us out here. I was also going over how long it would take for the nanites that made the suit to be ready to use and see if I could speed up the process any. As I checked it over I noticed the only thing that was ready to use was the kinetic barrier which I immediately turned on. The little things that saved your life. Before looking to see if Jane had one, which she didn't apparently, right when I was about to see if I could create one using the fabricator on the omni tool, two varren popped out and began snarling at us before charging.

Jane reacted immediately pulling off a warp before killing the one charging her with a shot to the head. As she did so I rolled back and threw out an incinerate which made the varren recoil slightly before I pulled out my hand cannon to finish the job. The moment I did so Jane turned to me with a worried expression on her face.

"Did you notice the varren were wearing some kind of collar." Jane said to me before I looked back towards the varrens body.

"Yeah its not very large but th-" I stopped when I noticed a Batarian charging at Jane from behind and based on the fact that Jane's currently glowing with power I'd say one's charging me from behind as well.

Knowing there was little time I threw an overload at him before lunging at him with the omni blade. The super-heated blade cut straight through his armor killing him instantly. As I turned around I saw Jane still glowing with power as she punched the Batarian in the face turning his head to blood and brain matter that scattered all over the clearing. Is it wrong that I find that kind of sexy right now, not the blood and guts of course just the glow that seemed to surround her body. I shook my head before my thoughts could continue, it was better to not think those thoughts in the middle of the field who knew how many of these guys were left, and we still had to find our parents.

Shaking my head again and slapping myself lightly I walk over to her and rip my shirt sleeve (How many times have I done this now) and soak it in water and just wipe off the blood off of her as quickly as possible. She gives a nod in thanks when I'm done before I speak up.

"We need to get out of this clearing now, and find our parents. I would bet that these two guys were likely a scouts once they don't hear from them they'll start hunting for us. I'll start up the tracking program on the omni tool to find both our mother's omni tools just in case they got seperated." Jane nods as I finish not once saying anything which worried me slightly, I would normally say a corny joke to see if that could break her bad mood but I doubt I could even come up with one in this situation. Instead I run the program before seeing both together a mile north from our location.

I show it to Jane before we both began running in that direction.

* * *

When we finally made it to where are parents were shit hit the fan, fast. There were two squads of Batarians there, who had captured our parents though if one were to look at the number of bodies on the ground they didn't go quietly. Problem was though I had forgotten that Jane had a rather mean temper which had been building ever since we had run from the remains of the colony. She was the poster child for redheads with tempers. As soon as she saw our parents being escorted by two squads she threw a warp at the closest one before whipping out Hawkmoon and killing two Batarians who didn't realize what was happening.

Psyching myself up I jumped out throwing out an incinerate at the Batarian closest to me before pulling 'the last word' and switching it to double action knowing I would need both hands for this. I then shot four Batarians the powerful slug ripping through their shields before blasting through their skulls, before I pulled out an experimental plasma grenade. Hoping that it worked I threw it at a small group of Batarians hitting one in the face. The plasma grenade burned into his skin as he screamed in pain before it exploded taking out the three Batarians. I then ducked into cover before looking out and noticed the second squad had retreated shortly after Jane started attacking. Clicking my teeth I also noticed one Batarian who had to be mentally challenged, he picked up a rocket launcher and aimed it at Jane who had just finished off the remainder of the squad.

I ran towards her just in case I missed my shot and pulled the trigger at the idiot. The shot had hit him, but he was able to pull the trigger before I could do so. So I pushed Jane down not noticing the the rocket now hitting a nearby tree. As I began thanking God for being alive my world exploded in fire before I once again blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm back readers, sorry I've been gone for so long, but I'm a college student and I needed to focus on my exams. Not to mention the person who I had editing my work stopped doing so. Anyway hope you enjoy the chapter.**

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**Prologue Part two: Earth **

**Mindoir **

**Forest area**

**Jane POV**

I'm not sure when I had woken up but everything felt sore, I was hungry from over using biotics and there was something heavy lying on me. I once again activated my biotics feeling the pain in my arms dull slightly as I slowly push myself up. In doing so whatever had been on me had fallen off. I turned around to see what it was only to find that it was James. I had gasped as I noticed most of his back was burned from the explosion, and he had shrapnel sticking out of his body in several places. With one large piece extremely close to his spine. I scrambled closer hoping that the medi-gel that he always told me to have stored in my omni tool would work on the wound before I noticed that the silvery substance that had attached to him earlier seemed to be slowly healing him.

I could see it slowly glide across the burn marks restoring them to his tanned skin before some of it tried to remove the pieces of shrapnel lodged in his body. Realizing that whatever James had made was healing him, I pulled out the biggest piece of shrapnel in his back and watched as the wound slowly stitch close as I did so. Ignoring the weird sight I began pulling out the rest of the shrapnel littering his body watching each slowly close as I did so.

As soon as his back had healed I flipped him over to check for any wounds on his chest seeing none, I checked his vitals (Something I should have done first), and seeing that he was alive and relatively fine I sighed in relief. Before remembering that substance again and promising myself that the moment this idiot woke up I'm going to find out what the hell he did to his body.

I got up ignoring the pain in my muscles and grabbed James walking away from the battlefield. Even though I wanted to go back and see if there were any signs of where they took our parents I knew I couldn't, no I wouldn't leave James like this. I slowly dragged him out of the forest, my body protesting as I did so, but I stopped when I heard the sound of a shuttle flying overhead. I tensed myself and looked up to seen an alliance shuttle, my body relaxing at the sight before darkness began creeping into my vision. I forced myself forward fighting it as best I could as I dragged James with me, but I eventually gave in when I saw the shuttle land near us and alliance troops take James from me. After that I saw the ground quickly approaching me before I felt my body being grabbed, and I blacked out.

* * *

**SSV Einstein**

**Med Bay**

**James POV**

I wonder how many times this is going to happen. Hoping that I didn't die and was once again reborn I open my eyes only to see an unfamiliar ceiling slightly confused about where I am and hoping I wasn't captured by Batarians I first brought my hand to my neck to make sure there was no slave collar attached. Finding no collar, I began looking around the room I was in I noticed that Jane was in the bed across from me. I pulled myself up to check on her before I was pushed back down onto the bed. I looked up to see Doctor Chakwas, slightly surprised I realized that I was likely on an Alliance cruiser in the medical bay. I relaxed slightly at the realization before turning back to where Jane laid.

"There is no need to worry about her young man, she was simply tired from overuse of her biotics. Though how she was able to use them without an amp is beyond me." As she said so I looked up sharply at her and she sighed. "No need to look at me like that young man I realized that she had been hiding the fact that she was hiding her biotics so I didn't put it in her file, but you know that once this is over it won't take very long for the alliance to figure it out and recruit her. Including if she is powerful enough to use her biotics without an amp."

I sighed at that I knew that Jane would eventually join the alliance, but I wanted her to join of her own free will, not because she would be a great asset.

"You however young man are a bit of a conundrum, you seem to have a healing factor nearly on par with a Krogan. Your back is covered in freshly healed skin, and from burns, and with how fast they seemed to have healed I would have almost assumed you have medi-gel for blood." I laughed nervously as I tried to avoid looking at the woman. While trying to come up with some explanation that didn't involve telling them about the abilities of the suit. Instead of coming up with an actual excuse I told her something I know I would be smacking myself over for years.

"Well I've always been like this as far as I can remember." I laugh a bit hoping that she would buy. Though I could tell by the look she gave me she definitely didn't. However, it seemed like she had accepted the explanation most likely deeming the fact that whatever it was, wasn't killing me and seemed to have saved my life. That thought was proven correct moments later when she spoke up.

"I know you're lying to me." I flinched at that. "I know that isn't true because I did a scan of your DNA for anything that could give me an answer to your strange regeneration. Whatever it is seems to be a recent change, but seeing as it isn't killing you I'll let you keep your own secrets." Chakwas told me with a smile. I would have said something, but Jane decided to wake up at that moment.

I heard her moan slightly whether from pain, soreness, or for any other reason I was not sure. I forced myself up again, and watched as the doctor began to go over her. Running her omni-tool over her body as she scrutinized the data. She then gave a nod whether it was to myself, Jane, or she was simply nodding to herself I couldn't tell.

"Well I can tell you that you that you're doing fine compared to earlier. When you had arrived here your biotics had nearly begun eating at your muscles and organs. So you're definitely doing much better."

Both Jane and I began freaking out when we heard that for two different reasons. One, she had figured out that Jane was a biotic. Though I should have expected that, and the second reason was that Jane had nearly killed herself using her biotics so much. I would have said something, and it seemed like Jane also wanted to say something. However, Chakwas cut us both off.

"Before the both of you start of freak out over the fact that I know. I won't be saying anything about Ms. Shepard being a biotic. For now, anyway. Ms. Shepard is still only sixteen, and the earliest one can join the alliance is seventeen though the rules can be ignored when the higher ups catch a special one. Which is why I won't say anything for as long as I possibly can, however you should be prepared just in case they do force you to join. As for you Mr. Racer I will not say anything about your strange regeneration." At the mention of that I caught Jane's glare and promptly gulped in slight fear. "I can't really say anything because it doesn't seem to be biological in nature, and based on your reactions earlier I guess you would be able to turn it off. So, if I did say anything and you did turn it off I would only look like a fool."

I chuckled a bit at that, while I wouldn't deactivate the suit, I knew if I needed to I would do so without a second thought to hide its secrets. I saw Chakwas smile a bit before she continued.

"Now from the way Ms. Shepherd was looking at you earlier I should leave you two to talk. I need to tell the captain that the two of you are now awake." Chakwas nodded to both of us before walking out of the med bay.

I turned back to Jane and noticed that she had already jumped off of her bed and was stalking towards me with a dark smile on her face. I paled before scrambling off of my bed to escape. I didn't know what she was angry about but I really didn't want to find out. I finally got off the bed before Jane grabbed my shoulder and roughly pulling me towards her. What followed was a beat down, I knew from past experience it was better to simply let her to let her anger out. It didn't hurt that much anyway.

After about five minutes or so, I wasn't too sure of how long she was attacking me for I noticed she had finally stopped instead she pulled me into a hug. I could feel her tears stain my shirt as she sobbed against my chest. She held me tightly almost as if I would disappear if she let go. In turn I pulled her further into the hug, and in doing so I felt her begin to cry harder.

I held her until I noticed her sobs had finally subsided, before I pulled her from my chest. Her face was was a mess, but I ignored that and instead decided to listen after she finally decided to speak.

"Why..." she asked in in a pained voice.

"Why did they have to die... both of our fathers are dead, our mother's are being tortured and forced to do God knows what. Our friends are either dead or in slavery as well. And I nearly lost you too." Jane yelled out as tears continued to flow from her eyes.

Wait what. Did she just say I nearly died. I began thinking back to what happened in the forest and remembered the idiotic Batarian that decided it was a smart idea to use a rocket launcher at close range. I guessed that the shrapnel and the flames was what nearly killed me, and it would explain why doctor Chakwas wondered how I healed so quickly.

Ignoring that for now I had noticed that while lost in my thoughts Jane had stopped crying I could tell she had forced herself to do so as she tried to look angrily at me. I had to quickly hide my amusement as she looked more like she was pouting. She spoke up when she noticed she had my attention.

"Another thing, I'm not complaining about it but what the hell did you do to yourself this time?" She forced out trying her best to ask angrily.

I stared at her in confusion, something she seemed to notice as she continued.

"I'm talking about that suit that you made and put on yesterday."

I blinked once, then blinked again as I realized what she meant. Though I wanted to know why she wanted to know about it. "Why do you want to know?" I asked her seriously.

"I'm trying to figure out if that thing might kill you or something. I mean it acted on its own, and it could come to life and try to take you over." Jane answered seriously, I could hear the concern in her voice as she spoke.

"I can tell you that that won't happen, I built the suit with limited intelligence it's main directive is to keep me alive as best as possible, and once I finish my other project it will only act on its directions." I answered her as seriously as to aleve any concerns that she had about the suit. Though I knew I shouldn't really talk about it out loud since I knew someone was likely listening in on our conversation.

She looked at me seriously before nodding realizing that, that was all she would probably get out of me. Instead she decided to rest her head against my chest and simply hold me.

We stood like that for maybe ten minutes when doctor Chakwas decided to come back into the med bay. With her was David Anderson, my eyes went a bit wide after I saw him but kept myself composed. He looked at our position as as I was trying to wake up Jane who had decided to fall asleep after our talk.

After waking her up Anderson began to speak.

"Now that you two are awake let's hear your story."

* * *

**Four months later**

**November 14th 2170 Earth**

**Alliance Military Academy **

Four months have past since the attack though it felt like an entirely different lifetime. After our talk with Anderson, he had told told us told us that we were wards of the state until we turned eighteen. Something that I had expected seeing that we were officially orphans. He had then told us that we would be under his care until then, as he did not want to send us off to an orphanage at our ages. He instead sent us to a military academy. Not a very good second option, but it was good for my own long-term plans.

The academy had a history of having ninety percent of the students join the military the other ten percent typically got jobs related to the military in some form. I can't wait to destroy that statistic when I do neither.

Daily life here was a bit harsh though apparently the training they give the students here was the same that they gave to people who joined the alliance through recruitment centers. The difference was that while basic usually lasted ten to thirteen weeks the school lasted much longer, even after a year most students were typically good enough to make lieutenant after having a few weeks of experience.

If I were to combine that with the training I received from my parents growing up, I knew I wouldn't need any training once I left earth.

Outside of school was a bit of a problem I had to find somewhere relatively safe that I could begin rebuilding my work, as most of it had exploded in the attack. I also had to make a ship that could get me off planet and carry all my designs. I knew I couldn't make anything that would last without proper materials but it was the safest way to carry it all without having anyone ask questions as to what I was carrying with me.

I was able to find a to find an abandoned warehouse that most people seemed to avoid. I never found out why as there was nothing inside that was dangerous, but I didn't want to test my luck and set up as fast as fast possible. Jane of course had helped me set up, and with her prior experience helping me we got everything up rather quickly.

Jane herself was another problem, she had become cold ever since coming here while she had never acted that way around me, I had seen how she had treated the others at the school. She always treated them horribly or outright ignoring them. Whenever she would do so I would end up apologizing in her stead. I had also noticed that she would do double the workouts assigned, an example of this was her doing an extra 10 or so laps even after she had finished the workout. Sometimes even doing more until she had collapsed. Leaving me to take care of her.

I had tried talking to her about it but she always managed to change the subject. Which led us to today. She had decided to ask me something that confused me slightly.

"Have you finished that ship of yours yet." Jane asked me seriously as I worked on the algorithms for Lara.

"Yeah I did why do you ask?" I answered her slightly confused at the random question. She never seemed interested in the ship before, in fact ever since we had arrived on earth she hardly ever displayed any of the curiosity for my work that she did before.

"Good, can she fly." She asked as she stared at the ship. Truthfully I wasn't confident the ship was ready to fly yet, including since I wasn't working on it seriously as I still had another two years before we could leave this place.

"I'm not very confident she could even break the atmosphere, she was made with mostly spare parts. I still want to do more test before I'm confident about using the ship." I told her as I turned to her trying to figure out exactly why she wanted to know. I noticed she smiled a little before turning back towards me, her smile gone replaced by a resolute look.

"The moment you're done with the ship we're leaving this place." Jane finally said to me. I stared at her in shock though I felt that this was coming with the way she had been acting, but I hadn't put it all together. In fact even though she was my best friend I sometimes forgot that she wasn't just a video game character, that she wasn't going to follow some predetermined path. However, I still needed her reasons though I had a good idea of what she wanted.

"And what were you planning to do when we left? Do you have some kind of plan?" I asked her seriously to see how seriously she was taking this whether she seriously wanted go off doing God knows what.

"I don't have a concrete plan, at the moment, but there was no way I was going to sit here for two years while both of our mothers are going through God knows what with those damn Batarians." Jane answered as I sighed at her response, it was something that was eating at me as well. I really didn't think I could focus on the reapers until I knew they were both safe, something that I guess was affecting Jane as well.

"... The ship won't be ready to go until June of next year, and I was already planning to go after our parents once we graduated. I am, ready all your doing is telling me to accelerate my plans a bit." I struggled to say, I didn't know if my actions in allowing her to come so easily just doomed the galaxy to destruction, but at this point I felt it didn't really matter, I wasn't planning on following the canon story, even if it would make my life a bit easier. I guess we would have to hunt down the reapers in my own ship instead of the Normandy. As I was lost in my thoughts I almost missed Jane's wide smile after I had caved and allowed her to come with me so easily, what I did miss instead sent me tumbling to the ground as she jumped at me to pull me into a hug. A hug which was biotic powered, I could literally feel my bones begin to crack as I lost my breath.

"Jane air!" I squeaked out as she released me and began apologizing. Something told me that this may become a habit whenever she got too happy. I hoped not though I felt like all my bones were nearly crushed from that one hug.

"Sorry, I mean I just thought you weren't going to agree, or try to tell me that I should wait until we turn eighteen. This was just so unexpected." Jane said as she continued to hug me, though not as roughly as before. As she did so I sighed to myself wondering when this decision would come to bite me in the ass. I just hope it wasn't soon.

* * *

**Seven Months Later**

**April 11th 2171**

**Abandoned Warehouse**

Seven months after our talk Jane had begun to open up once more. While she hadn't interacted much with the students at the school, from what she told me she didn't see a point in doing so since we were leaving soon. She had started acting more like her old self. Something that I was thankful for.

Today we were celebrating Jane's birthday, I knew from past experience that Jane hated getting jewelry as I had tried that once about three years ago, she took it but had complained though she still wears the necklace. I wasn't really sure why and I never thought to find out, but since then I had always stuck to more practical gift that I thought she would enjoy.

For her birthday this year I had built her an omni-tool on par with the Savant X model which would be available in about ten years. While she wasn't very interested in the tech side of things I had recently noticed that since our talk she had taken an interest, likely so she would have any advantage as we got into any fights after we leave. I already showed her how to work most of the tech abilities available so she would be able to use them with a bit of practice.

She seemed to enjoy the gift since I was currently being choked to death by her biotically powered hug.

"Jane air." I finally managed to choke out. She separated from me quickly apologizing as she did so before giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. Going off to mess with her new omni-tool. I chuckled a bit as my face flushed slightly before going back to my own work. I would've started working, but Jane had interrupted me.

"James we need to go." She yelled out as she looked at the time. I looked at her strangely wondering why we needed to leave, and she gave me my answer seconds later.

"Did you forget that the school was doing inspections today, they need everyone in the dorms. If we're not there well you remember the punishment they gave you the last time." Jane said to me as she began to pack up her stuff.

"I didn't think the punishment was all that bad." I shrugged in response to her concern. "Besides I thought you enjoyed it." I noticed she seemed to smile in remembrance before looking away with a blush on her face. I could still remember being forced to run the entire campus buck naked. I didn't mind much as I didn't really care about nudity, it was just the looks I received for about a month after that. The girls constantly staring and blushing, and the guys giving me dark looks.

"I admit that I did, I just didn't like that half the girls in the school staring at you like a piece of meat." Jane said angrily before she got up grabbing her bags before turning back to me. I chuckled at that remembering how she nearly lashed out against most of the girls, she instead gave her patented Shepard glare™ and most of them backed off.

"Come on, we need to go." She yelled at me.

"I'll be along in a few minutes I just need to put away these." I told her as she nodded reluctantly and began running ahead.

As she ran ahead I began putting away most of the work I had in the warehouse just in case someone had gotten past the security I set up whenever I left. When I noticed that the alert I set up for anyone who approached the warehouse that I hadn't registered before had somehow gotten past my security. Slightly perturbed I quickly pulled out my gun before diving behind some cover near the security monitors to see who it was who could have broken in.

"No need to panic young man the security you have outside is probably enough to keep out a Salarian STG team for at least half an hour. Long enough to take them out before they could even get past the first one." The mysterious man said as I stayed behind cover while grabbing a device I had made a few years ago that would throw my voice out so that people wouldn't be able to guess where I'm hiding. It worked well against my parents as well as Jane's so I was hoping it would work against this guy. Quickly attaching it to my mouth I spoke hoping and praying that it would work..

"_If that's true it makes me wonder how you got past it so easily, it took you about thirty seconds to get through half of my security as if you were a ghost."_ I spoke my voice being thrown from the device though it didn't seem to affect the man very much as I could see from my view of the security cameras that he didn't seem to care. At least from what I could tell from his body language.

"As fun as this is I don't want to stand here all day comparing dick sizes, so I'll just give you a quick explanation of what brought me to your lovely residence today." He said as he cleared his throat as if he was going to make a great speech. I could hear the smugness in his voice as held this over me. "You see alliance command believes that you have gone too far in interfering with their plans for Shepard. Our original plan was to simply eliminate you, hide the evidence and convince Shepard that finding her mother would be easier after joining the alliance. However, you derailed those plans as we have come to see that you might actually be an asset to us. Half of your inventions in the right hands could have take down a small army in a matter of minutes." I cut him off right there as he still hadn't answered how he got in.

"_You still haven't answered my question." _I stated slightly frustrated though I hadn't let it show in my voice. As I said this his smile almost seemed to grow

"Hmm, I haven't well you see we had originally placed some bugs on you after your time in the med bay on the SSV Einstein. However, we weren't expecting you to get rid of those so quickly." I snorted quietly as I remembered those they weren't even that hard to get rid of. "What you failed to look for was the bugs that we had left inside of Shepard's omni-tool." Hearing that I wanted to start slamming my head into the wall over that simple mistake. I then saw him walk over to where Jane left her old omni-tool. "From that we were able to develop a program that would allow your system to recognize anyone using the code as a recognized user." Damn now I was going to have to redo my entire security system.

"Now that you know lets go back to our little talk. You see once we saw you as an asset we knew we couldn't alienate you, but at the same time we wouldn't let you and Shepard go through with your plan to leave. Which brings me here, right now Shepard is being told that she has 24 hours to pack up as she will be 'convinced' to join the alliance a little earlier than usual. As she is a ward of the state, we would only need her permission for her to join. My part in this was to tell you that should she not be ready to leave after the next 24 hours well I'll save that little surprise for later. Let's just say that you'll be putting many people's lives in danger." He seemed to laugh a bit to himself.

"_You're willing to risk the lives of others just for two people, and you're not really selling yourself if you want me to be willing to work with you." _I answered angered at the the fact that they seemed to be threatening others just to get Jane to join.

"Well you're right about that, but I'm sure you'll understand once this is all over." He said as he turned around and began leaving. "I suppose I'll be seeing you Racer." He said as he left the warehouse. The moment I confirmed that he was gone I set my security system to manual so that one would need a combination of a retinal, DNA, and voice recognition to open. I knew it wasn't perfect, but it would ignore the usual system that they had gotten past. Once the place was secure I ran out the warehouse running as fast as possible to the campus.

It took me two minutes of running to arrive at the campus and another minute to make it to the girls dorms. As I ran inside I saw two alliance marines leave Jane's room one of the larger men had a blackening eye, and the other a slight limp. They were followed by an older man who seemed based on all the metal on his chest, to be a General. The General seemed to be holding his stomach, and he also walked with a limp. I slowed myself down before watching as the the group of three walked out the door of the dorm, before I ran into Jane's room.

I found Jane who had teared apart most of her room in anger, or maybe it happened in whatever fight the three men got in with her. I slowly approached her before calling out her name to see if I could get her out of her rage. It seemed to quickly get her attention as she snapped her head towards me, as I watched her calm down at the sight of me though she still seemed rather tense. I approached her quietly instead of speaking I simply pulled her into a hug, something she didn't fight. We simply stood there before she decided to speak up.

"Why did this have to happen?" She asked. I could tell it was mostly rhetorical, though I found myself answering anyway.

"I'm not really sure myself, the only reason I could think of is because they want you for your biotic talent." That was not completely true the alliance may not know about the reapers, however they I know they likely saw Jane as someone they could mold to become a spectre candidate. Though she didn't know we were both already partially in the spotlight as we were the only survivors of Mindoir. There was also the fact that Jane's family were rather famous as career soldiers. Her father retiring because of an injury he received against pirates, and her mother retiring after getting pregnant. They were both expected to become spectres candidates had they stayed on. She nodded in my chest at that before looking up at me her prior anger finally faded a bit more.

"What about our plan to find our parents, I still don't want to leave them in the hands of those Batarians." She said with a small amount of anger in her voice.

"I'll deal with that, instead they want you to be a damn soldier, then be the best soldier they've ever seen." I told her as she snorted at me, before she smiled.

"Yeah I'll do that." She said quietly before pushing me down onto her bed. I looked at her slightly confused at the sudden move I was about to speak up but she cut me off. "I want you to stay here tonight." She said as I blinked in surprise.

"Do you want to do…" I implied before she shook her head.

"No, not under these circumstances, besides we've always been skirting around our relationship since the accident, and I'm in no mood to deal with that kind of drama." She stated. I chuckled lightly at that, throughout the years since the accident on the ship we had realized we liked each other, but we had never said anything out loud. The first mention on how we felt about each other was actually just now which made me laugh a bit harder. "I just need you here with me tonight, before I go off to play soldier girl."

I nodded before taking off my shirt and pants, and hopping under the sheets watching as Jane stripped into her underwear and joining me moments later. I turned off the lights as we fell asleep in each others arms.

* * *

**Next Day**

**1500 hours**

**Alliance Military Academy**

**Girls Dorm**

After our night together Jane had quickly packed up her things and had prepared to leave. I helped her pack her things while at the same time going over each of her things for any bugs that might have been planted on her things. After destroying two one suspiciously found in her underwear drawer. I had given her a communications device I had been making just in case we had ever become separated and either normal comms were down or were too dangerous to use. She accepted it and commented that she would call me as much as she could before walking off to the shuttle which had been waiting at the front of the dorm for her. Before she entered she ran back and gave me a kiss before running back to the shuttle. Leaving me standing there slightly in shock.

As I watched the shuttle fly away I quickly recovered before I noticed a man in alliance regs approach me. Standing next to me watching the shuttle fly off. He then turned to me and decided to speak. "I see you didn't try to stop her from leaving." The man said as I tensed realizing this was the same man from yesterday.

"What would you have done if we had decided to leave and ignored your warning." I asked inclining my head towards him. He seemed to smile at that and continued to stare at the shuttle which was already out of sight range.

"Well you would have realized that we had sabotaged your ship, and you would have been forced to land where we wanted you. From there we would simply convince Shepherd to join with a bit more force. After all I doubt she would want to see the man she loves die." I clicked my teeth at that, I probably could have taken down the man alone yesterday I had the home field advantage then, however he would have likely had an entire squad waiting for us had we even thought about leaving the planet.

"Now here is the part where you'll be willing to work with us. We have a few leads that we have been investigating on where your parents are currently being held we will give you the information as well as assistance should our lead prove to be good under two conditions." I turned to the man and nodded too worked up knowing if I opened my mouth I might say something I might regret.

"First condition you must stay on earth until you turn eightteen. I'm sure you can figure out why." I nodded, they likely wanted the ability to control me as I was still a minor, the moment I went off planet I could simply hide from them until I turned legal. "Condition two is not really a condition, but you must be willing to sell some of your designs to the alliance." I turned to the man confused at that condition, the only thing I could work out from that is so they knew they would be getting the things I made regardless of how I felt about them at the moment. "We want you on our side Mr. Racer, alienating you was not our intention however in this case we felt it was necessary to secure a major asset." I nodded and then spoke up.

"What about that threat yesterday, the one where you threatened to kill others." His smile faltered slightly when I mentioned that, and he turned to me.

"That Mr. Racer was to make sure we had gotten your attention and secured your cooperation. We had no intention of killing anyone to do so." In other words their fail safe to make sure I listened to them. Great now I truly felt like I was played, though I was a little confused as to how they went about it, it still worked.

"Alright you have my cooperation." I gritted out. I noticed tension leaving his shoulders that I never noticed until now as he turned away from me.

"Thank you, Mr Racer we'll be in touch." The man said as he walked away from me. It was then that I realized I never got the bastards name.


End file.
